Macy Lugo Social Worker!!

It's been two months since I've graduated. I've done a few monumental things since then:

1. I've made homemade bread: White, cinnamon raisin, and oatmeal bread

2. Started 2 books . . . emphasis on started

3. Found several offers for free stuff in the mail

4. Thumbed through my Shape magazines

5. Developed a passion for my home work-out video that saves me a trip out in the freezing cold

6. Caught up on 3 and 1/2 years of missing sleep

Now that I've had a good winter's nap literally and figuratively, I feel like it's time to move on with my life. It's been so nice not to have homework or tests. I've got a chance to really relax. But I can only fart around for so long before I reach a point where it's time to find something else in my life.

So many of my goals are not quite happening. I don't know why, but it's so hard to study my Spanish textbook when I don't have any assignments. Or, it's hard to read a book, when I'd rather take a nap. I've had a short 2 month time-out in my life and it's time to start progression and working towards something.

My next goal is to become a licensed social worker. Today I almost reached my boiling point in the pharmacy. Too many people came in with problems that I just didn't care about. I realized today that I want to get a move on with my life and actually put my $20,000 degree to use. If I pass the four hour long test, then I have a few careers in mind:

1. School social work

2. Substance abuse prevention and treatment

3. Juvenile Correction Center (with the youth)

4. Child Protections Services

5. Mental Health

So there are my top 5 choices. Hopefully in two months from now I can officially be "Macy Lugo . . . SOCIAL WORKER!"

Macy the Emaciated Dog

Emaciate:

(Verb) - To make abnormally lean or thin by a gradual wasting away of flesh, especially as a result of starvation.

Synonyms - Thin, wasted, puny, gaunt, haggard, scrawny.

One of my best friends in high school used to call me emaciated. I used to just laugh with her because I thought it was just a big word that sounded like my name. Emaciated sounded to me like emancipated. To emancipate means to free from restraint or to free (a slave) from bondage. Little did my 17 year old mind know, these two sound alike words were actually completely different. The whole time she was calling me emaciated, I was thinking of the definition of emancipated. I thought she was relating me to a free person-someone with little to no worries-a vagabond perhaps. I felt that maybe I was freeing her from some kind of unconscious restraint.

Now that I know the actual definition of the word, I don't know whether to laugh even harder or to be offended. I am a tall, fairly thin figure. I can see where she would match up part of that definition with me. But I am not so thin that my flesh is wasting away. I wish the flesh off of my love handles would waste away, but believe me they are there whether I starve myself or not. The synonyms to this lovely word further my point: Thin, wasted, puny, gaunt, haggard, and scrawny. These synonyms don't exactly have a positive connotation to them. Was my best friend calling me a puny haggard all these years?

Education is bliss. Now that I know what emaciated means, I can laugh even harder. Until at work the past month I've met one dog and heard about two others with my name. The laughing has ceased for a moment.

David and I watched four kids for a week as the parents went to Mexico on their anniversary. It was a big week of responsibilities and also a "self-note" to postpone kids for a year or two. We clearly are not ready for that yet. The family had two dogs. One dog was an outside dog. I actually don't remember her name. It was scrappy, sadie, or something else that I cannot remember. It had to stay out in the cold garage all week long. Meanwhile, their other dog was an inside dog. Her name was Macy and she was so cute and spoiled as she ran inside the warm home. Then a pharmacist I work with returned from the holidays to tell me that he got a new dog whose name happened to be Macy. He got the dog from a family who was just trying to get rid of her. She was unwanted. Hearing about two dogs with my name was not a big deal, but then on Tuesday another pharmacist told me that his friend's dog is named Macy and that he always calls her emaciated because of how scrawny it is.

That was the straw that broke the camel's back. After that encounter, I dramatically said to myself, "I have a freak ing dog's name!" I have calmed down since then and realized that this is a bit of an overreaction. Coincidentally I have encountered three dogs with my name in the past month. Fortunately, I have learned what emaciated means. Miraculously, I a m laughing now. Although there are quite a few dogs out there with my name, there are also quite a few people with my name too. I am not a dog, nor am I emaciated. Those are just coincidences and nicknames. I have to remind myself that I love my name and to laugh about all this other stuff.

Salud, Dinero, Amor!

In English when someone sneezes, you are supposed to say, "Bless you!" In Spanish when someone sneezes it is a little different. The first time someone sneezes, you are supposed to say, "Salud," which means health. If they sneeze a second time, you are supposed to say, "Dinero," which means money. If they sneeze a third time, you say, "Amor!" When I sneeze only twice, David (Daveed) gets a little disappointed, but he loves when I sneeze three times so that he can shout "Amor!" This is a neat tradition in the Spanish culture. Why health comes before money and money comes before love - who knows - but this is one expression I love. This is a new year and as such I have a few new year's resolutions. I have just graduated from BYU-Idaho with a degree in Social Work and now I am expecting to have more free time. Here are some of my goals I have set for the new year with my free time:

One of my goals is to start a blog and to write in it regularly. Another is to start cooking real food for my husband and fatten him up a little bit, but not so much that we can't still play racquetball. Third is to not only work out three to four times a week, but to develop a love for exercising so that I'm not dragging my feet to the gym. Fourth is to play more piano. That is a vague, unmeasurable goal, but it makes sense to me. I want to practice not only for my new calling which is the primary pianist, but as an outlet for myself. Fifth, is to read lots and lots of books that I've been waiting to read once I graduated. I can't wait to go to the library to roam each aisle in search for a new novel. Sixth, I want to read the Book of Mormon in Spanish within 6 months. I plan to study Spanish this way and also by going back to my Spanish textbook which I miraculously found in the dumpster!

I hope that all these goals will enhance the health, wealth, and love in the life of David and me. I'm not wishing to be wealthy in the sense of having loads of money, but wealthy in the sense of having loads of laughter and memorable experiences. David and I have hit the one year mark of our marriage and I can't wait for more years to go throughout eternity. I hope that this blog will be an expression of the many experiences that lie ahead. I hope this new year will find everyone sneezing three times so that we can all be blessed with "Salud, Dinero, y Amor!"